BBC Watchdog: HIPS company fails to deliver

Tony

What Consumer Founder
Apr 7, 2008
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Bolton
Watchdog investigated the issue of Home Information Packs (HIPS) and a company that failed to deliver three times over. HIPs are the government's big idea to make buying and selling your home quicker and easier. It's a brand new business, with an age old problem. People who'll make all sorts of promises to get hold of your cash but fail to deliver on their promised service.

HIPS have been around for just over a year. They're controversial but if you're selling your house in England or Wales, then in most cases you'll have to get one so that potential buyers can have all the information they need.

You can put the pack together yourself or find someone to do it for you. Roger Byatt did that in November 2008 when he decided to sell his flat. Roger bought a HIP through a Scottish-based provider called 1stforHIPS. Roger was especially interested because of the extras that were on offer including a floor plan and a "virtual tour of the property".

Good deal
The packs offered by 1stforHIPS were an incredibly good deal too, more than £50 cheaper than the average. When Roger signed up for the pack he thought that 1stforHIPS would deliver fast but although they sent inspectors round, Roger never got his HIP. He told Watchdog: "I made enquiries and began to see that actually the company wasn't delivering for other people, there were forums on the internet talking about them."

The owner of 1stforHIPS, Jason Gamble, not only persuaded sellers to take a chance with his company, but estate agents too. One of those was Matthew Bennett of Orchid Estate Agents. Matthew was visiting an Estate Agents' trade fair. "I fell upon the 1stforHIPS stand and got talking to Jason Gamble and his team, where they were offering Home Information Packs for a staggering price of a £179," he told us.

This price was so good that Matthew paid up for five HIPs. Matt eventually had just two delivered. This left him with no option but to buy more packs for his clients from other providers, and he never received a refund from 1stforHIPS. The failure of 1stforHIPS to deliver on their promises nearly jeopardized the sale of homes for Matthew clients.

So, sellers had lost money to 1stforHIPS, estate agents had lost money to 1stforHIPS. But Jason Gamble had another card up his sleeve. He'd found one more way, to put money in his hip pocket.

Energy assessments
The energy assessment which provides an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is an essential part of the HIP. 1stforHIPS employed a large team of inspectors from around the country to conduct these assessments, one of whom was David Down. He was newly qualified and liked the idea of working for a company like 1stforHIPS, because they offered a great deal.

"I was looking for a career change and I saw this and I thought it would be a good opportunity for me," David told Watchdog.

David was contacted by Jason Gamble, the director of 1stforHIPS, who said he could earn a great wage doing energy assessments. All he had to do was pay a fee to 1stforHIPS, in return he'd get a special camera, and more importantly, the right to do all the jobs in one area.

David paid over £2,500 and worked hard for 1stforHIPS, making calls to almost 50 houses. But 1stforHIPs only ended up paying him for half of those jobs.

At least David got some money. We've spoken to other inspectors promised work by 1stForHIPs. Some paid out £3,000 to get their patch and never got a single job.

HIP Code
The government says anyone selling HIP should follow the guidelines in what's called the HIP Code -run by The Association of Home Information Pack Providers (AHIP). But it's not compulsory and there's no surprise that Jason Gamble didn't sign up. 1stforHIPS would fall well short of the required standards.

Mike Ockenden, the director general of AHIPP, told Watchdog: "There is no way in the world that 1stforHIPS could operate in the way that they do if they were a subscriber to the HIP Code... the fact they haven't actually delivered their product, you can't get the phone answered, they don't answer queries properly they don't answer complaints."

We see plenty of businesses who take money for nothing on Watchdog. But there aren't many who've found a brand new market and exploited it so quickly, and so thoroughly. 1stforHIPS is a first for that.

When Watchdog contacted 1stforHIPS the company said: "1stForHIPs.com was established in February 2007 in response to the statutory requirement for all homes being sold in England and Wales to have a Home Information Pack from December 2007.

"The business experienced significant growth following the delivery of 1stForHIPs first Home Information Pack in January 2008 - successfully delivering over 5,000 fully-compliant Home Information Packs and expanding our central workforce to over 50 personnel by August 2008, in direct support of the fast growing business and the Domestic Energy Assessors that had become Agents.

"It was, however, deeply regrettable that we ceased trading on December 2008 due to the impact of a combination of factors including the current recession, the recent collapse in the property market, bad debt and a downturn in HIP instructions which caused significant cash flow problems.

"Unfortunately when a company ceases trading there will always be customers who are affected financially and we can only apologise for their financial loss.

"We strongly refute the allegations levelled against the company and we must stress that we received no trading standards complaints during almost two years in business.

"We must also add that as a business we exhausted every possible avenue to keep the company trading until it became no longer sustainable to do so."



HIPS company fails to deliver